Letters : Doubtful deaths

From
Tony

Ipswich, Suffolk

Katie Alcock’s comments on suicides in Africa prompt me to point out, as a
member of the Samaritans organisation, that statistics for suicide are always
unreliable
(Letters, 3 May, p 54).
In Britain, coroners are reluctant to give a
verdict of suicide and often give verdicts stating “death by misadventure” or
that “the balance of mind was disturbed”. Concern for friends and relatives,
religious considerations, as well as the implications for insurance life
policies that do not pay if death is by suicide, also make coroners reluctant to
give a suicide verdict.